Will Ethereum slide under $1,500 as selling pressure accelerates across crypto?
Ethereum is under heavy pressure again, with the market’s second‑largest asset extending its slide as a cluster of bearish signals converges. ETH briefly sank to around $1,855 during early Asian trading on Monday, before clawing back slightly to about $1,874, still down more than 6% on the day. The move came amid a broad crypto sell‑off dominated by Bitcoin, which broke below the key $65,000 psychological level and triggered massive liquidations across leveraged positions.
Macro stress and risk‑off sentiment hit Ethereum
The latest wave of declines has not emerged in isolation. Renewed U.S. tariff threats targeting virtually all major trading partners, combined with fears of a possible military escalation involving the U.S. and Iran, have soured global risk sentiment. In this environment, speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies are often the first to be sold as investors rush to de‑risk.
Ethereum has been no exception. As Bitcoin’s sharp downturn rippled through the market, ETH followed suit, wiping out a large number of over‑leveraged positions. Data indicates that roughly $108 million worth of Ethereum long futures were liquidated within just 24 hours, illustrating how crowded the bullish side of the trade had become before the correction accelerated.
Technical picture: multiple bearish patterns align
From a charting perspective, Ethereum’s daily timeframe has started to flash several warning signs simultaneously. Most notably, Monday’s candle formed a textbook bearish engulfing pattern: the day’s red candle fully consumed the range of the prior green candle, signaling a potential shift in control from buyers to sellers. Such formations often appear near local tops or ahead of deeper pullbacks.
Zooming out, ETH has already dropped about 45% from its yearly peak and is down roughly 62% from the all‑time high near $4,946 reached in August 2025. The scale of this retracement suggests that Ethereum is not merely in a short‑term dip, but in a prolonged corrective phase where rallies are being consistently sold into.
On lower timeframes, price action has carved out a bearish pennant pattern – a sharp downward “pole” followed by a consolidating triangle that tilts sideways to slightly upward. Historically, when such pennants break to the downside in continuation of the prior trend, they often precede another strong leg lower as late buyers are forced out of their positions.
Descending channel points to deeper downside
The broader market structure also looks fragile. On a multi‑month view, Ethereum is trading within a descending parallel channel, marked by a series of lower highs and lower lows contained between two downward‑sloping trendlines. This pattern typically reflects a persistent, grinding bear trend in which each bounce fails to reclaim previous resistance.
If ETH continues to respect this channel and revisits its lower boundary, technical projections point toward the $1,450 area. That target would effectively mean a decisive break of the $1,500 support zone – a level that carries not just chart significance, but substantial psychological weight for traders and long‑term holders.
Why the $1,500 level matters so much
The $1,500 mark functions as a key mental anchor for many market participants. It sits close to previous consolidation zones, is easily remembered, and often acts as a threshold for positioning decisions: some investors place stop‑loss orders just below it, while others plan to buy in size if price reclaims it.
A clean breakdown through $1,500 would therefore be more than a routine move on a chart. It would confirm a structural deterioration in Ethereum’s medium‑term trend and likely unleash a cascade of automated selling as stops and liquidation thresholds are triggered. In thin liquidity conditions, that chain reaction can turn a controlled decline into a fast “capitulation” spike lower.
When markets enter such capitulation phases, intraday price swings tend to become more violent, spreads widen, and order books thin out. For traders, that environment can be both an opportunity and a trap: while sharp bounces frequently occur after panic selling, timing those reversals is notoriously difficult.
ETF data paints a cautious demand backdrop
Beyond technicals, the behavior of institutional and quasi‑institutional investors isn’t particularly encouraging for ETH bulls. Spot Ethereum ETFs – once celebrated as a gateway for traditional capital to flow into the asset – have recently been seeing persistent outflows instead of inflows.
Over the past five weeks, the nine spot Ethereum ETFs have collectively registered net redemptions totaling around $1.38 billion. Continuous outflows suggest that large holders are taking chips off the table rather than building exposure on dips. This undermines the idea that ETFs will automatically act as a constant buy‑side force for Ethereum, at least in the current macro and regulatory environment.
For price dynamics, these flows matter greatly. When ETF issuers must sell ETH to meet redemptions, that selling adds to spot market pressure. In a market already dealing with liquidations and waning risk appetite, this steady stream of supply can make any sustainable rebound harder to achieve.
Derivatives market signals: bears pay a premium
The derivatives market is also flashing a strong bearish tilt. The weighted funding rate – the fee paid between long and short perpetual futures traders – has dropped deep into negative territory. When funding is sharply negative, it means short sellers are willing to pay a recurring premium just to maintain their downside bets against traders who remain long.
Such a setup typically indicates aggressive conviction from the bearish side. Short traders are essentially signaling that they expect further price declines significant enough to offset the extra cost they incur. While extremely negative funding can sometimes precede a sharp short squeeze if sentiment becomes too one‑sided, there is currently little evidence of a powerful counter‑trend catalyst that would force bears to cover in mass.
What could push Ethereum below $1,500?
Several overlapping drivers could combine to drag ETH under the $1,500 threshold:
1. Continuation of macro risk‑off
Any escalation in geopolitical tensions, new tariff shocks, or deteriorating global growth data could prompt another wave of selling in risk assets. If equity indices and high‑beta tech stocks continue to struggle, crypto is unlikely to remain insulated.
2. Further Bitcoin weakness
As the market’s benchmark, Bitcoin’s price action often dictates the tone for the entire sector. A sustained move well below $65,000 – especially if it triggers another large round of liquidations – would likely spill over into Ethereum and other altcoins.
3. Breakdown from current chart patterns
A confirmed downside breakout from the bearish pennant, in confluence with Ethereum sliding toward the lower band of the descending channel, would reinforce bearish technical narratives and attract more trend‑following sellers.
4. Persistent ETF and fund outflows
Ongoing redemptions from Ethereum investment products would keep adding spot supply to the market, limiting the impact of dip‑buyers and possibly encouraging more long‑term holders to de‑risk.
5. Worsening derivatives sentiment
If funding remains negative while open interest grows, it would suggest that short positions are expanding rather than being closed, keeping pressure on price and increasing the likelihood of testing lower supports.
Are there any potential supports if $1,500 breaks?
If Ethereum convincingly loses the $1,500 line, traders will look for the next zones where buyers might step in. Potential support areas could emerge around:
– Prior consolidation or volume clusters in the $1,300-$1,400 region
– Round psychological marks such as $1,200 or $1,000, where bargain hunters might attempt to call a long‑term bottom
– Trend‑based support levels derived from the lower edge of the multi‑month descending channel
However, these are not guarantees of a floor. In a fast‑moving capitulation event, market prices often overshoot “logical” levels before stabilizing. Historically, crypto markets have a tendency to move further and faster than most participants expect, both to the upside and the downside.
What long‑term investors and traders may consider
For long‑term Ethereum holders, the current downturn raises difficult questions about strategy, but it does not necessarily invalidate the broader thesis around the network’s role in decentralized finance, smart contracts, and tokenization. Instead, it highlights the need for clear risk frameworks:
– Position sizing and time horizon: Investors with multi‑year horizons often accept higher short‑term volatility, but they still need to avoid concentrations that could force them to sell at distressed prices.
– Staggered entries and exits: Using gradual buying or selling strategies at pre‑defined levels can reduce emotional decision‑making and smooth out the impact of short‑term spikes.
– Awareness of macro cycles: Even fundamentally strong assets can trade far below perceived fair value during tightening cycles or periods of elevated geopolitical risk.
Shorter‑term traders, meanwhile, may focus on:
– Key levels: Monitoring how price reacts around $1,500, $1,450, and subsequent support zones can provide clues about whether sellers are exhausting or intensifying.
– Funding, open interest, and liquidations: These metrics help gauge whether a move is being driven primarily by derivatives or spot flows and whether a counter‑move (like a squeeze) is becoming more or less probable.
– Pattern confirmations: Waiting for clear breaks and retests of pattern boundaries, rather than attempting to anticipate every move, can help avoid being caught on the wrong side of volatile swings.
Could sentiment reverse and invalidate the bearish scenario?
While the current setup leans heavily bearish, markets are dynamic. Several developments could challenge or delay a drop below $1,500:
– A swift de‑escalation in geopolitical tensions, restoring some risk appetite
– A strong bounce in Bitcoin that reclaims broken supports, easing broader crypto fear
– A surprise shift in ETF flows, such as a return to net inflows after a period of capitulation selling
– Major positive news for Ethereum specifically, such as a successful protocol upgrade, regulatory clarity that favors its ecosystem, or a surge in on‑chain activity and fees that rekindles investor interest
In such a scenario, the same technical patterns that now look ominous could fail or morph, turning into complex consolidation structures instead of clean continuation signals. Markets frequently invalidate neat chart formations when unexpected fundamental information appears.
Bottom line
Ethereum currently faces a confluence of negative forces: bearish technical patterns, heavy long liquidations, sustained ETF outflows, and a macro backdrop hostile to risk assets. Together, these factors have opened the door to a possible test of the $1,500 level and even a slide toward the $1,450 area implied by the descending channel.
A decisive break below $1,500 would represent more than just another dip – it would mark a significant deterioration in Ethereum’s market structure and could unleash a fast capitulation move as stops and margin calls are triggered. Whether that scenario unfolds will depend on how macro conditions, Bitcoin’s trajectory, institutional flows, and derivatives positioning evolve in the coming days and weeks.
This analysis is for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.